Author: Gordon Harris

Gordon Harris is the town historian for Ipswich Massachusetts.

202 Main St., Rowley MA, the Deborah and Rev. John Pike house, 1839

Gordon HarrisLeave a comment
202 Main St., Rowley MA

The house at 202 Main St. in Rowley sits on property that was for over a century the homestead of descendants of early settler Eziekiel Northend. The last member of the family to own the ancestral home was Northend Cogswell, who relocated to S. Berwick Maine. The heirs of Northend Cogswell sold the entire estate in 1837 to Hannah and John Francis Jamin. They arranged for the removal of the 1720 Northend house in 1838 and it was moved to 169 Main St. where it has for many years been the Rowley Pharmacy. The Jamins built the present house on this location in 1839.

The Jamins built another new home across the street at the present location of Pine Grove School, and in 1849 sold this house with 4 acres to Deborah Pike, wife of Rev. John Pike, pastor of the First Church. In the 20th Century the house served as the Catholic Church rectory.

202 Main St. Rowley MA
This view from the south side of 202 Main St. shows that its two fireplaces are located at the rear of the house. The rear ell is a later addition.

The house has a traditional 5 bay two-story façade with a mix of Federal and Greek Revival elements. The front entry portico has columns, but lacks transoms and sidelights found during those periods. First floor rooms have 10′ ceilings. The two fireplaces are located at the very rear of the house, with tall chimneys rising above the height of the peak, similar to several houses on Main and Summer Streets. Most have stated construction dates ranging from 1800 – 1834, but two are listed as 1750. Paired rear fireplaces seem to have been very popular in Rowley.

The Rev. John Pike house, 202 Main St., Rowley MA
The Rev. John Pike house, 202 Main St., Rowley from the 1899 New England Magazine

Early history of the property

Ezekiel Northend, the first of the name and family in this country, settled in Rowley a few years after its first settlement by Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and his associates in 1639, and was a prominent man in the town. He gave to his son and each of his daughters from one hundred to one hundred and fifty acres of land upon their marriage.

Ezekiel Northend (3rd generation), the son of Capt. Ezekiel Northend, was born January 25,1696-7. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Edward Payson on March 30, 1726, and died October 18, 1742. Elizabeth, the widow of Ezekiel Northend died 9 May, 1787. The book, Early Settlers of Rowley records, “His homestead in Rowley was on Main Street and was later owned by Rev. John Pike. Ezekiel Northend was a member of the General Court from 1715 to 1717, and served the town as selectman several terms. His son was a selectman and captain of the military company. *Sarah, the daughter of Ezekiel Northend, married Thomas Mighill, Nov. 13, 1750. The Mighill-Perley house is still standing at 100 Main St.

In 1761, Sarah Northend, a daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Northend, married Dr. Nathaniel Cogswell of Ipswich, and they made their home here. Sarah was born November 19, 1738, and died March 8, 1773 at age 34. He lived to an old age and died May 23, 1822 at age 83.

1830 Rowley map
The 1830 Rowley map shows the Northend Cogswell house at this address.

Northend Cogswell

Among the many children Of Nathaniel Cogswell and Sarah Northend Cogswell was Northend Cogswell (1762-1837), named for his grandfather and great grandfather. In the Revolutionary War he served in a company from Rowley, commanded by Capt. Thomas Mighill, and attached to Col. Nathaniel Wade’s regiment. Rowley Vital Records record that he married Elizabeth Lambert of Rowley in 1794, and they removed to South Berwick, Maine, where his wife died in 1828, and is buried in the Portland St. Cemetery in S. Berwick. Mr. Cogswell was engaged in mercantile pursuits until the War of 1812, when he retired from business. He died in 1837 and is buried in the Portland St. Cemetery as well.

Northend Cogswell continued to own the Rowley house after he removed to S. Berwick. His sister Sarah was born June 5, 1763 in Rowley, and on Dec. 19, 1790, married Oliver Appleton of the Ipswich Appleton family. On May 13, 1795, Samuel and Oliver Appleton and Wade Cogswell sold and quitclaimed their shares of inheritance in this property to “our brother Northend Cogswell of Berwick in consideration of 60 pounds” including the house lot and buildings “that our honorable grandfather Ezekiel Northend died seized of,” (Salem Deeds book 258, page 050).

Among the Cogswell children who grew up in S. Berwick was Charles Northend Cogswell (1797-1846), an attorney who served as Maine state senator and representative in the 1830s and 1840s.

1856 Rowley map
1856 Rowley map showing Rev. Pike at 202 Main St., the J.F. Jamin residence across the street, and the relocated Northend house now at the corner Main and Hammond Streets, owned by Mark Jewett.
1872 map of the center of Rowley
The 1856 and 1872 maps of Rowley show the Rev. John and Deborah Pike house at 202 Main St., and the home of John Francis and Hannah Jamin across the street. The Jamins sold 4 acres of the former Northend Cogswell estate with the old house to the Pikes in 1849, and had constructed a second new house across the street at the present location of the Pine Grove elementary school.

Hannah and John Francis Jamin (1837-1849)

After their father’s death, Northend Cogswell’s children and their spouses, William S. Cogswell of New York City, Charles N. Cogswell, Sarah Cogswell, Frederick Cogswell of S. Berwick on July 13, 1837 each sold “an undivided 5th part with all the buildings thereon, lying on both sides of the street” to Hannah M. (Elwell) Jamin, wife of Captain John Francis Jamin of Rowley. (Salem Deeds book 299 page 221). Sold in two separate deeds, the price for the entire estate including the old 1720 Northend house was $1280.00.

Joseph N. Dummer wrote in his unpublished document, Land and houses of Rowley that the Northend house was removed from this lot in 1838, and the Jamins built the present house by 1839: “Abigail, widow of Benjamin Todd sold 1/3 acre (at the corner of Main and Hammond Streets) to Lewis H. Dole” (Salem Deeds book 339 page 101). The deed states a sale of 1/3 acre to Mark R. Jewett, but in 1844 Jewett transferred the property to Dole and in the same year Dole transferred back to Jewett’s wife Mary. Mark R. Jewett is shown as the owner of that corner lot in subsequent maps. (Salem Deeds book 341, page 47 and Salem Deeds book 409 page 202).

On April 28, 1849, John Francis Jamin, husband of Hannah Jamin, sold to Deborah Pike, wife of Rev. John Pike, the 4-acre lot at 202 Main St. “with the dwelling house and barn thereon” for $3200.00. (Salem Deeds book 410, page 240). The price represents a substantial increase in value of the property because of the new house. Joseph N. Dummer wrote that the Jamins sold the present house and lot to Hon. Daniel Adams, who presented it to his daughter Deborah, but only her name is on the deed.

Captain Jamin having sold the house on the northern side of the street built in 1849 a house on the other side of the street, which after his death was sold with the remaining nineteen acres of land to George Prescott. The 1856 and 1872 Rowley maps confirm that the Jamins had constructed a new residence across the street at the present location of the Pine Grove Elementary School.

John F. Jamin was born in 1791 in the Isles of France, and married Hannah Mighell Elwell, the daughter of Samuel Elwell and Elizabeth Perley. Hannah Mighill, died in 1869, age 76 yrs., followed by her husband John F. Jamin in 1870, and are both buried in Rowley. Their son, John Francis Codeau Jamin, died in 1844, aged 13 yrs., and their only daughter Hannah Elwell Jamin, died in 1840, aged 21 years. The graves ot the Jamin family are marked by a cross of red sandstone in Rowley graveyard. (Source: M. V. B. Perley)

Rev. John Pike of Rowley and his wife Deborah
Rev. John Pike of Rowley and his wife Deborah, from the 1899 New England Magazine

Rev. John Pike and Deborah Adams Pike

Rev. John Pike was the son of Richard Pike and Mary Boardman, both born in Newbury. His wife was Deborah A. Adams, (1814–1893). Rev. Pike graduated from Bowdoin in 1833, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1837; preached in N. Falmuouth, Mass., till 1840, then was the esteemed pastor in Rowley for 28 years, succeeding Mr. Holbrook. After a successful ministry he was dismissed, Jan 5, 1869 after becoming blind, but continued to reside in Rowley. His wife Deborah predeceased him.

Although blind in later life, he continued his pulpit work, preaching nearly every Sunday, with the assistance of his gifted wife, to the inmates of the House of Correction at Ipswich, until his wife’s demise at their home in Rowley, 30 Dec., 1893.

A 1899 New England Magazine article included a short biography of Dr. John Pike, “Rev. John Pike, D. D., is preeminently the Rowley pastor of the present century. Rowley was his first and only settled charge. Here he was installed in 1840, and here he remained despite every solicitation from other churches, amid the ever deepening love, respect and pride of his people, until the steady approach of blindness compelled his resignation in 1869. His beloved wife and true fellow-worker has entered into rest, but Dr. Pike at the ripe age of eighty-six still awaits the day when those eyes which have so long been closed to earthly loveliness “shall see the King in his beauty.” Dr. Pike died later that year, September 20,1899.

Interments of Rev. John and Deborah Pike family members at the Rowley Cemetery
Interments of Rev. John and Deborah Pike and family members at the Rowley Cemetery. Photo courtesy of John Glassford.

Nancy Todd Morrison

Dr. Pike outlived his wife Deborah Pike, and in 1894 sold the homestead to Nancy Todd Morrison (probably their daughter) in consideration of one dollar, “the same being the estate granted to me by the will of my late wife, Deborah A. Pike.” (Salem Deeds book 01410 page 064). Nancy Todd Morrison died in 1935, aged 98, and is buried alongside the Pikes at the Rowley Burial Ground.

In 1921, fourteen years before she died, Nancy T. Morrison sold the house to Wilfred P. Adams, who sold it to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston as the Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church Rectory. The barn on the property at that time was then remodeled into a Catholic Church. It has since been moved to Hammond Street and made into an apartment house. The present owners of 202 Main St. purchased this house from the Catholic Church.

Front windows and doorway at 202 Main St. are said to be original
The front windows and doorway at 202 Main St. are believed to be original.
Fireplace at 202 Main St. in Rowley
The fireplace at 202 Main St. in Rowley belongs in the late Georgian -Federal-Greek Revival period.

Sources and further reading: (To see the deeds, you have to first open a new session at the Salem Deeds site, and then you can click on the deed links on this page.)

Mighill-Perley House, 100 Main St., Rowley MA (1737 /c. 1820)

Gordon Harris2 Comments
Mighill-Perley House, Rowley MA

George Brainard Blodgett in Early settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts wrote that the Mighill – Perley House at 100 Main St. was built for Capt. Nathaniel Mighill (1684 – 1762) at about 1737. A deed search finds that Nathaniel Mighill made dozens of land purchases in Rowley during the period when he presumably constructed the house.

Historian M.V. B. Perley was told that the house was constructed in 1769 by John Perley (1748 – 1811), who married Capt. Nathaniel Mighil’s daughter Hannah. The tradition is not born out by a search of purchases by John Perley during that period, and it is likely that John Perley inherited the house from his wife’s father. The house originally had a central chimney, which was replaced by John and Hannah’s son Captain Nathaniel Mighill Perley (1781-1836) with paired chimneys in a major renovation that included corner quoins and central hallway, sometime in the early 19th Century.

Members of the Mighill family played an important role in the Town during the American Revolution. On December 30, 1772, a town meeting was held regarding a letter from members of the Boston Committee of Correspondence concerning the rights of British American colonists now known as the “Boston Pamphlet. The Town appointed a committee of a dozen men, including Stephen, Nathaniel and Thomas Mighill to take into consideration the said letter and pamphlet, and to report to the town, at an adjourned meeting, “what they shall think proper for the town to do relative thereto.” Nathaniel Mighill, Esq., was chosen in July, 1775 to represent the town in “the Great and General Court to be holden at Watertown” on July 19, known as the Third Provincial Congress.

Image from Early settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts by George Brainard Blodgette, who attributed the builder of the house as Nathaniel Mighill.
Image from History and Genealogy of the Perley Family by M.V. B, Perley, page 99, who attributed the builder of the house as John Perley in 1769.
Georgian doorways, paneling and fireplace at 100 Main St. in Rowley (Realtor photo)
Nathaniel Perley created this wide and attractive hall by replacing the early central chimney with paired chimneys at either end of the house. (Realtor photo)

The following text is primarily from the History and Genealogy of the Perley Family by Martin Van Buren Perley:

John and Hannah Mighill Perley

“John Perley, son of Samuel, was born in Linebrook Parish, Ipswich, 22 Nov., 1743, and was a 5th generation descendant of Ipswich settler Alan Perley. He removed to Rowley shortly after 3 Jan., 1769, and there made his home. It is said that Mr. Perley’s residence was located at the southern corner of the Common, on the right going south, and that the house now located there is the same; it has a curb roof, and in Mr. Perley’s day had an immense chimney in the center, which, it is said, his son Nathaniel removed when he thoroughly repaired the old mansion, running through it from front to rear door a wide and attractive hall, after the English pattern, erecting the two chimneys and covering its frame entirely new.

“John Perley was called captain. He might have been a sea captain, as one of his brothers and his son were. He married Lucy Holland, daughter of Joseph and Mary, in Linebrook, 2 May, 1765. She was born in Ipswich, where she was baptized 7 Jan., 1738. She died in Linebrook, 21 Feb., 1766. He married, second, Hannah Mighill of Rowley, 21 Sept., 1769. He was drowned, 28 Nov., 1811, at the age of sixty-eight years. His widow survived him only about ten months, dying 8 Sept., 1812, at the age of fifty-nine years. His first child was born in Linebrook, the other children in Rowley. Hannah’s descent was honorable. Her father, born 17l5, was Nathaniel Mighill, Esq., and her mother was Elizabeth Appleton, daughter of Col. Samuel Appleton. Her grandfather, born 1684, was Capt. Nathaniel Mighill, active against the Indians, and her grandmother was Priscilla Pearson, a descendant of John who built the first fulling mill and clothier’s works in America. Her great-grandfather, born 1651, was Stephen Mighill (son of Thomas the immigrant and his wife Ellen), who married Sarah Phillips, daughter of Rev. Samuel Phillips, second minister of Rowley, and Sarah Appleton, daughter of Samuel Appleton of Ipswich.

Captain and Mrs. Nathaniel M. Perley
Captain and Mrs. Nathaniel M. Perley, from “History and Genealogy of the Perley Family” by M.V.B. Perley

Captain Nathaniel Mighill Perley

CAPTAIN NATHANIEL MIGHILL PERLEY was born 6 July, 1781, in Rowley, the son of John Perley and Hannah Mighill. The residuary part of his mother’s estate fell to him and his brother John. He died in 1836 at age 55, and the Mighill-Perley house remained in the possession of his brother.

Captain Nathaniel Mighill Perley built the ship, “Country’s Wonder” in 1814 across the street on the common. This ship was then hauled with 100 yoke of oxen to the warehouse landing. This was a remarkable feat of the times, the vessel being of 100 tons burden, and the Warehouse Landing being over 2 miles from the common, where it was built. An account of the “Country’s Wonder” was published in both the “Essex Register,” a newspaper published at Salem under date of 7 May, 1814 and the “Salem Gazette” of 10 May, and a folksy quotation from The Bodleys on Wheels” by Horace Elisha Scudder, mixing the stories of Nathaniel Mighill Perley and his father:

“Captain Burly was a great man about here. He was a mighty smart man. Why, that fellow had command of a merchant vessel before he was twenty-one, and that meant something in those days. It meant that he was a merchant as well as a captain. He carried his cargo to the East Indies and sold it, and bought a cargo and brought it home. It took a good deal to make a captain in those days. Well, he had about the most iron-bound will of any man that was ever born, I guess. He had thirteen children. I knew ’em; stiff, unyielding men and women that knew their minds and could stand up to anybody. I never saw their like, but they bent like reeds before “Captain Burly.” Captain Burly wanted a snip, and he said he wasn’t going down to the river to build it. He’d build it by his own door, on Rowley Common. People laughed at him, and said they guessed Captain Burly was one too few this time, but the more they said the more he stuck to it. The people shook their heads, and some said he was Noah building an ark; and others said he was Robinson Crusoe that built his boat and couldn’t launch it ; but the old man knew better. When he was all ready, he went and hired all the oxen in the country round. Yes, sir, he had a hundred yoke of oxen here, and he hitched ’em to the vessel, and by the jumping gingerbread he hauled it down to the water. Pretty much all the country was there to see it.”

The house at 202 Main St. was constructed on the 18th Century Ezekiel Northend estate. Nathaniel Mighill’s son Thomas Mighill and Ezekiel’s daughter Sarah Northend were married November 13, 1750.

Section of Anderson map of Rowley, 1830. John Perley is shown at the location of 100 Main St.

William Kilham and Lucy Ann Perley

Captain Nathaniel Perley’s brother John Perley married 4 Dec, 1817, Ann D. Haskell of Newburyport. Her death came by her own hand 22 Sept., 1842. He died of cancer, 24 Feb., 1861. In 1845, William Kilham of Boston, a 40 year old merchant, married the daughter of John and Anna, 25 year old Lucy Ann Perley, who survived her husband. The 1872 Rowley map and the 1880 directory show the owner of 100 Main St. as “Mrs. Lucy Killam.”

Subsequent owners

From the 1920s to the 1960s the owner were Dr. and Mrs. Oliver R. Fountain, who were listed as resident members of the Rowley Historical Society in 1920, and mentioned as owners of the house on Main St. in 1932 in the Mighell Kindred of America. Dr. Oliver R. Fountain is also listed as a resident at 40 Dudley St. in Boston, in the Clarke’s Boston Blue Book of 1908. Dr. Fountain, was the defendant in a 1929 case involving a patient’s visits to Cable Hospital in Ipswich and the hospital in Lynn, and a subsequent leg amputation. The outcome of that case is not known. The 1940 Census lists Oliver R. Fountain, a man born in 1881 in Maine, 59 years old at the time of the census, and living in Rowley.

The next owners in our records are Marjorie and Gordon Story, who moved to Rowley in 1964. Mrs. Story became active in the Rowley community where she belonged to the Congregational Church, the Garden Club, the Historical Society and was active with the Council on Aging. She was a member and past Treasurer of the Florence Jewett Society and was also the Rowley Representative for the Cable Hospital Auxiliary. In 1986 ownership was transferred to their son, Douglas Story and his wife.

Subsequent Deeds

  • June 12, 1897: Lucy Ann Kilham (of Boston) to Charles H. Mooney of Rowley, in consideration of one dollar, a tract of land by the land of Grantor, near the stone monument. (Salem Deeds book 1515, page 472)
  • December 11, 1897: Lucy Ann Kilham, “a widow and not married”, pasture land “formerly of Todd,” to David and Roscoe Perley (Salem Deeds book=1540 page 401)
  • June 3, 1899: Frank E. Simpson, from the Estate of Lucy Ann Kilham, deceased, “being part of the homestead of Hannah Perley, a certain parcel of land on the southeasterly side of Main St. near Rowley Common, previously conveyed to grantor by Lucy Ann Kilham”, transferred for one dollar to Charles H. Mooney. (Salem Deeds book 1576, page 552)
  • Salem Deeds: Marjorie Story to Douglas G. Story, June 1986.

Historic imagery

This house has an account of 1861 written on the paneling in the attic, which tells of men staying the night and departing from this place to go off to the Civil War.

Inscriptions on the wall of the Perley house at 100 Main St. in Rowley.
Inscriptions on the wall of the Perley house at 100 Main St. in Rowley by young men leaving for the Civil War. The inscription reads, “I left these hallowed walls much to their regrets, Saturday, pm 6/ 2 trains, September 1861.” The initials are CF, ERM, MLP, and MNV, but their identities are unknown, “CF” could possibly be Cyrus Foster, who enlisted in Rowley.
Mighill-Perley house, this photo was taken before 1906.
Mighill-Perley house, this photo was taken before 1906
The Mighill Perley house in Rowley, c 1920
The Mighill Perley house in Rowley, c 1920s. The owner of the house at that time was Dr. Fountain.
Mighill-Perley house, before the 20th Century
Mighill-Perley house, photo taken probably just before the 20th Century
Mghill Perley house, Dr. Fountain
Dr. and Mrs. Oliver R. Fountain owned the house from 1920s to the 1960s. This photo was taken during the 1939 Rowley Tercentenary celebration. Dr. Fountain is flanked by his parents. The woman seated in the white dress is his mother. The people on the right are his wife and her parents and one sister, standing to the far right. Mrs. Patricia Fountain is standing behind her parents with the white collar top. She is dressed in costume pertaining to the day’s celebrations on Rowley Common behind the house.
The Mighill-Perley house early in the 20th Century
The Mighill-Perley house early in the 20th Century
MACRIS site photo of the Mighill-Perley House in the 1980s.
MACRIS site photo of the Mighill-Perley House in the 1980s.
Stairs in the Mighill-Perley house
Stairs in the Mighill-Perley house
A room in the Mighill-Perley house at 100 Main St. in Rowley MA
Room in the Mighill-Perley house

Sources and further reading: (To see the deeds, you have to first open a new session at the Salem Deeds site, and then you can click on the deed links on this page.)

The William Livermore House, 271 Essex St. Beverly MA (1671)

Gordon HarrisLeave a comment
William Livermore house, Beverly MA

The original single-cell end of the house is sheathed in vertical boards, while the left addition has horizontal sheathing. The right front rooms of the house exhibit late First Period features. The second-phase rooms to the left, stairway, and the first-phase right chamber exhibit good early second period details, suggesting a circa 1725-30 construction date for the addition.

The house was beautifully restored by Bill Haight and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Deed and genealogical material below provide evidence for the original owner of this house.

Deed for sale of house by William and Elizabeth Livermore to William Hooper April 24, 1697

“By these presents witnesseth that I William Livermore with my wife Elizabeth of Beverly in the County of Essex Have bargained & sold unto William Hooper of the same Town my house which I now live in with all ye out houses and appurtenances therewith belonging as an acre of ground with all the fences and apple trees except six apple trees and three plumb trees for ye said houses of land William Hooper is to pay or cause to be paid to William Livermore or his assignees the full and just sum of thirty five pounds in current pay as followeth, ten pounds in hand and twenty pounds in dry fish to Mrs. Brown or Nicholas Woodbery at or before the last of July next 1670. The wife of William Livermore hath paid to Captain Price one pound thirteen shillings & ten pence & ten pounds more (…..) in year 1674. The remainder of 35 to be paid to William Livermore when my wife doth surrender up to William Hooper or his assignees all ye house and land above mentioned upon ye last of September One Thousand Six Hundred & Seventy& do give him quiet possession our selves and assignees to warrant him against all opposite whatever.

–William Livermore (his mark), Elizabeth E. Livermore (her mark), first day of November, 1676 (Source: Salem Deeds site, book 11, page 236)

William Hopper sold to Joseph Corning, August 17, 1713; one and one half acres of upland in Beverly with house, barn and shop “bounded easterly by land of Dr. Hale, southerly by land of Joseph Morgan, and westerly by the road.” (Source: Salem Deeds site, book 28, page 176.) Although the surname is spelled differently, this is the only Beverly land transfer listed for William Hopper or William Hooper in Beverly during the 1644 – 1799 period. There are no maps for the neighborhood during that time area, so we have no way to be sure that these deeds refer to the present house or land. (note: The Samuel Corning house in Beverly is also first period.)

Livermore Whittredge

William and Elizabeth (Houchin) Livermore had one daughter, Charity (1657-1700).

  • In 1681 Charity married Lt. Thomas Wittridge (1657-1717), a descendant of William Whitredge (1596/97-1668) of Ipswich. William Whitteredge, age 36, a carpenter, came to America in 1635 on the “Elizabeth” with his wife Elizabeth, 30, and son Thomas, 10. He was in Ipswich, Mass. by 1637 and died in December 1668, probably in Ipswich.
  • Thomas and Charity Wittridge had six children, William (1683-1726), Charity (1685-1734), Thomas Whittridge (1687- ), (1689-1755), Elizabeth (1691-1776) and Sarah (1693-1762).
    •  When she was 25 years of age, Sarah Whittredge married John Morgan (1693-1752), son of Samuel, Jr., and Sarah (Herrick) Morgan. John Morgan was a lieutenant at the siege of Louisbourg, the French citadel commanding the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. (*Note that the 1713 deed listed above shows sale of what is believed to be this house shows an abutter as Joseph Morgan.)
  • Lt. Livermore Whittredge was born 1703 in Beverly and died July 28, 1773 in Beverly. He was the son of Thomas Whittredge, Jr. and Thomas, Jr.’s second wife, Sarah Herrick Morgan Whittredge.

This house is traditionally associated with Livermore Whittredge Sr. and Jr, who were members of the Committee of Correspondence and active privateers during the Revolutionary War. The brigantine Fanny, owned in part by Livermore Whittredge, on a voyage from Beverly for Hispaniola with a cargo of fish, was captured May 28, 1781 by the English brig Providence and taken into New York.

The last will and testament of Livermore Whittredge Sr.”yeoman” of Beverly, dated July 23, 1773, names “Mary my well beloved wife. “I Give to my Daughter Rebeckah Mansfield ye use of ye west chamber in my Dwelling house, To Live in for as Long as She Shall Continue a Widow.” The will names four sons — Thomas, William, Livermore, and John Whittredge — and four daughters: Mary Langdon, Rebeckah Mansfield (a widow), Hannah Dodge, and Charity Ford. On August 3, 1773, the will of Livermore Whittredge was presented for probate. His widow signed her own name “Mary Whittrage.” Inventory of the estate included “about 25 acres of homestead” in Beverly, plus other property, for a total of about 83 acres.(*Mary Whitteridge was the daughter of Thomas Gage of Beverly.)…………..

Sally Whittredge who was born there 13 Dec 1786 the daughter of Livermore Jr. and Lydia Herrick Whittredge and married goldsmith Nathaniel Fowler of Beverly. On Feb. 10, 1808, Sally in her right sells Thomas Whittredge “the westerly half of a dwelling house, buildings and land, the late mansion house of Mr. Livermore Whittredge deceased of Beverly..”

Living Room in the William Livermore house
Living Room in the William Livermore house

In his book, The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay 1625-1725, Abbot Lowell Cummings wrote: “For the North Shore, the bulk of the earlier houses date to the last three decades of the seventeenth century and the opening years of the eighteenth century. Many of these buildings reveal a stylistic affinity, especially in the prevalence of the transverse ground-story summer beam supported on posts ornamented with carved shoulders. Of ninety examples of this transverse, as opposed to the more common longitudinal positioning of the summer beam located at Massachusetts Bay, fifty-eight are located in Salem or its derivative communities, while an additional seventeen are to be found in Essex County towns just above Salem.” (The Samuel Corning house in Beverly has similar carved posts.)

Fireplace and room in the William Livermore house

In his book, The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay 1625-1725, Abbot Lowell Cummings wrote: “The Hall fireplace measured seven to nine feet on the average in width of opening, and the parlor fireplace six to eight feet. The depth was never more than three and a half feet, and the height of the opening to the bottom of the lintel was between four and five feet. Despite the fact that one is apt to find the rear corners of the workaday hall fireplace squared off, both hall and parlor openings could be enhanced in purely decorative terms by having their rear corners rounded and by the insertion of a panel of brickwork laid up in herringbone fashion at the center of the rear wall behind the smoke panel. The hall fireplace was invariably wider, owing primarily to the presence of an oven. This was followed by a dramatic reduction in the size of the cooking fireplace when, during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, the oven was removed from the opening altogether. Bake ovens were not invariable in the earliest years, although by the later decades of the seventeenth century at Massachusetts Bay the oven in the hall fireplace had become a commonplace fixture.”

Room with fireplace in the William Livermore house
Post head supporting summer beam in the downstairs oldest section of the William Livermore house.
Post head supporting summer beam in the downstairs oldest section of the William Livermore house.
Identical massive arches support the first floor fireplace on the chamber and parlor sides of the William Livermore house.
Identical massive arches support the first floor fireplace on the chamber and parlor sides of the William Livermore house.
william-livermore-house-side-view
Side view of the William Livermore house. The front left corner of the house in this photo is the original house, doubled in width by the early 18th Century. The roof was replaced or altered when the house was extended to become mass scale in depth.

 References and sources:

Andrew and Anna Dodge house, 201 Larch Row, Wenham MA (c 1790-1840)

Gordon HarrisLeave a comment
201 Larch Row, Wenham MA

This house is named for Major Andrew Dodge, who was the third generation of the extensive Wenham branch of the Dodge family to live on this property, which was purchased by their ancestor William Dodge (1678-1765). The original section of the house was probably built for Andrew’s father Deacon William Dodge (1758-1824). Structural details including its mass, chimney locations, and window placements bear resemblance to other houses in this area constructed in the 1780-1810 time period (view at the end of this document).

The house was extended on the left side and acquired its current appearance after Andrew and Anna Dodge assumed ownership in 1826. By 1860, Susan Dodge Wikins, her husband and three children had moved in with her parents. The Wilkins continued as owners after the death of Andrew Dodge.

Andrew Dodge house, Wenham MA
Photo credit: Wenham Historical Commission

Construction

The right side of the house is presumed to be oldest, but the entire house has late Georgian / early Federal-era features. Paired, rather than central chimneys are found beginning about 1760 until 1860, but this house lacks the heavy entablature, cornice details, friezes, triangular pediments and wide banding below the roofline that we would expect in the Greek Revival era (1815-1860).

front entry sidelights and rectangular transoms were probably installed in the early Greek Revival era,
The front entry sidelights and rectangular transoms were probably installed in the early Greek Revival era, c 1830-40, when the left wing was added and the house was updated. The sparsity of other exterior decorative features such as window lentils, modillions, dentil molding, or wide frieze boards are indicative of late 18th or early 19th Century construction.
First floor fireplace, 201 Larch Row
First floor fireplace, 201 Larch Row. Wood heat and beehive ovens were used until the beginning of the industrial revolution around 1840, when coal began to replace wood as fuel for heating and cooking.
upstairs cooking fireplace directly above the downstairs kitchen
An upstairs cooking fireplace directly above the downstairs kitchen dates to the renovation and extension of the house between 1826 and 1840. The upper door is a cook oven, and the lower door is an ash dump. The 1860 census lists Andrew and Anna Dodge and their daughter’s family sharing the house. An upstairs kitchen would have made this possible.
Federal-style cast-iron door at brick oven
Typical Federal-style cast-iron door on the brick oven , second floor hearth, left side. This cast iron door on the bake oven in the second floor of the left side of the house is typical of the 1830s. A small slider in the metal door was used to control the amount of air getting into the oven.
Fireplace ash dump
Detail, ash dump, wing second floor fireplace.
Rumford fireplaces were in use from 1796, when Count Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850
Rumford fireplace, first floor. Rumford fireplaces were in use from 1796, when Count Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850.
Metal wash tub recessed into the fireplace masonry
A metal “set kettle” recessed into the fireplace masonry and is identical to one in the Nehemiah Perkins house in Wenham. Brass, copper or tin set kettles are found in houses constructed between 1800 and 1845. Used for heating water, they were generally located above the ash pit.
Norfolk-style latches differ from earlier Suffolk latches, which lacked the back plate.
 Introduced in the late 18th Century, Norfolk-style latches differ from earlier Suffolk latches, which lacked the back plate. Above it is a slide bolt or cabinet latch with a porcelain knob.
Federal / Greek Revival Interior door casings.
Interior door casings in the left side differ in form from the right side of the house. Corner blocks lack rosettes, and neither has plinth blocks ( which are seen on the adjoining fireplace).
interior window shutters in Federal house
Several styles of interior window shutters are found in the house at 201 Larch Row.
arched chimney and hearth base
Arched chimney and hearth base in the left side of house, typical of the mid 18th Century to early 19th Century.
Brick piers and stone or wooden lintels supporting fireplace
Base of the chimney on the far right side of the house. Early in the 19th Century, brick piers and stone or wooden lintels replaced brick arches as fireplace and chimney supports.
Rafters in 19th Century house.
Rafters with chimney and roof door at 201 Larch St. Purlin construction, which is somewhat unique to Essex County, finally gave way to modern rafters in the 19th Century. The straight lines of the roof ridge as seen from outside suggests that the roof framing may have been replaced when the house was extended and updated c. 1830-1840, under the ownership of Andrew Dodge.

The Dodge family in Wenham

Richard Dodge

Andrew Dodge was a sixth generation descendant of Richard Dodge, who was born in Somerset, England, and first appears with his family in Salem in 1638. After living awhile on land of his brother William, he settled on “Dodge Row” in North Beverly, not far east of Wenham Lake. (Genealogy of the Dodge family).

Richard (2)

In his will, Richard (1) gave a farm to each of his five sons, including Richard, who was born in 1643 in Beverly, and who married Mary Eaton in 1667. He was a farmer and lived in the south part of Wenham. He died 13 April, 1705, at Wenham. (Genealogy of the Dodge family).

William Dodge

William Dodge (-Richard -Richard) was born in Wenham in 1678, where he died Oct. 1765, aged 87, having spent a long and prosperous life in that town. In the record of his death he is called Lieut. William Dodge. He married Prudence, daughter of Walter Fairfield in 1699. She died August 5, 1737, and he married second, Mrs. Abigail Giddings of Hamlet Parish (now Hamilton). He acquired a large amount of land, and in 1752, distributed his lands to four of his sons, William, Richard, Jacob, Skipper, the fifth, Isaac, having been provided for and moved to Boxford. (Genealogy of the Dodge family,)

Jacob Dodge

Jacob Dodge (William -Richard- Richard), born 19 February, 1715-6; died 13 December, 1792. He married first, Sarah Hubbard, of Ipswich, April, 1736. She died 19 December, 1740 in her 29th year. He married second, Martha (Perkins) Dodge, widow of Barnabas, who died in 1751. He married third, Elizabeth Crowell, published 22 June, 1752. She died 20 October, 1806. The gravestones of all but the second wife are to be found in the cemetery on Dodge Row.

Like his brothers, Jacob Dodge showed great thrift in acquiring land. Some 43 deeds are on record of land to him as grantee and 24 deeds as grantor. In 1785, he distributed most of his land to his sons Jacob, William and Abraham. His will was dated 13 September, 1788, and proved 4 March, 1793. It mentions his wife Elizabeth and his daughters Prudence Edwards and Mary, wife of John Dodge. The inventory amounted to only 307£, 18s, 8d, as most of his property had been already divided, and the remainder went principally to his two daughters. (Genealogy of the Dodge family)

Deacon William Dodge

Deacon William Dodge (-Jacob -William -Richard -Richard), was born 6 June, 1758, in Wenham, lived at Wenham Neck, where he died February 22, 1824, and was buried in Dodge Row cemetery. He appears to have received from his father the homestead of his grandfather, William Dodge, who married Prudence Fairfield.

Deacon William married (1) Hannah Goldsmith, of Andover, 23 November, 1780, who died 6 June, 1790, in her 29th year. He married second, Jerusha Cleaves, of Beverly, 18 June, 1791, who died 15 September, 1805, aged 45. He married third, Joanna Herrick, of Boxford, who died 13 August, 1849, aged 86. Their gravestones are in the Dodge Row cemetery. (Genealogy of the Dodge family).

In 1784, Silas Waldron of Beverly sold a tract of land containing 24 acres to William Dodge “with a dwelling house and a barn on the same, bounded by the land of Stephen Dodge or Amos Dodge,” and 3 acre plot bounded by Simon Dodge. (Salem Deeds Book 141, page 196). “The History of Wenham” by Myron O. Allen published in 1860 notes “The Waldron Place was in the Eastern Part of the Town and is supposed to be the one now occupied by Widow Elizabeth Dodge.” The Waldron tract and dwelling house were apparently granted to William’s daughter Elizabeth, but the other siblings sold and/or quitclaimed their portions of the family estate to Maj. Andrew Dodge.

Children of Deacon William Dodge:

  • Hannah, b. 16 Aug., 1781; married John Edwards of Beverly
  • Elizabeth, b. 10 Aug , 1783; m. 17 Aug., 1806
  • William, b. 29 July, 1785
  • Jacob, b. 19 July, 1787;
  • Benjamin, b. 23 Aug., 1789;
  • Andrew, b. 11, Nov., 1791

Maj. Andrew Dodge

This premises with 24 acres, a dwelling house and other buildings was conveyed to Andrew Dodge, April 22, 1825, by his sister, the widow Hannah Dodge Edwards, and his brother William Dodge 3rd of Beverly, yeoman and his wife Nancy Dodge, in consideration of $1250.00, paid by Andrew Dodge. The sale was accompanied by a quitclaim to Andrew Dodge by his siblings. Deeds show that over the years, Andrew and Anna Dodge bought and sold numerous additional land holdings in Wenham.

Maj. Andrew Dodge was born Nov. 11, 1791 in Wenham, son of Deacon William Dodge, where he died Nov. 23, 1876. “He was known as Maj. Andrew and was a man of good standing in his community. His residence was at Wenham Neck, a few rods north of the Baptist church, ‘Master’ Stephen Dodge being his next neighbor on the west and his brother Ezra, next on the north.” (Genealogy of the Dodge family).

Andrew’s first wife, Mary Conant, died in childbirth at age 23 in 1816. The child, Andrew, survived only three months. With his second wife, Anna Dodge, he had three children who lived to adulthood, all daughters, Mary Ann, Adeline and Susan, who married farmer Charles Wilkins (1829-1910).

The 1825 Massachusetts register lists Maj. Andrew Dodge “of Beverly” in the officers of Cavalry, Massachusetts Militia. Andrew Dodge was moderator of the Wenham Meeting from 1830 to 1856 except for the period when he served as a representative from Wenham to the General Court from 1839 – 40. Census data in 1860 lists Andrew Dodge as a farmer. The 1870 Wenham directory lists him as a justice of the peace.

Children of Maj. Andrew Dodge:

  • Andrew (born May, 1816; died Sept. 17. 1816),
  • Mary Ann, born Nov. 15, 1818; married George West Dodge, son of Pyam
  • Adeline, born March 5, 1822; married Asa W. Trout at Wenham;
  • Susan, born in Wenham; married Charles Wilkins of Danvers.

Deeds for the premises with a dwelling house and other buildings, conveyed by sale and quitclaim to Andrew Dodge by his siblings, April 22, 1825:

  • Hannah Edwards , widow and William Dodge 3rd of Beverly, yeoman and his wife Nancy Dodge, in consideration of $1250 paid by Andrew Dodge. a parcel with a dwelling house and other buildings, containing 24 acres. Salem Deeds 1331 / 174.
  • Hannah Edwards, widow; Abraham Lord, and William, Jacob, Benjamin and Ezra Dodge, in consideration of $40 quitclaimed to Andrew Dodge, 11 acres. Salem Deeds 1331 / 173
Crypt of Andrew and Anna Dodge, with the crypt of Ezra Dodge on the right, at the Rt. 1A cemetery in Wenham
Crypt of Andrew and Anna Dodge, with the crypt of Ezra Dodge on the right, at the Rt. 1A cemetery in Wenham

Wilkins

Charles and Susan Dodge Wilkins and their children, along with her parents Andrew and Anna Dodge lived together at 211 Larch Row beginning in the 1860s, according to census data. which indicates that the wing already existed. The 1900 census includes 71-year-old Charles Wilkins living in Wenham Neck with his daughter Adaline, three boarders, and a hired hand. The 1910 map indicates the property at 201 Larch Row was owned by “Heirs of S. Wilkins.” Read Wenham Form A records for this house or at MACRIS.

Subsequent Deeds: (To see the deeds, you have to first open a new session at the Salem Deeds site, and then you can click on the deed links on this page.)

  • Mary A. Leach, widow, and Harriett Adeline Wilkins to Mary Osgood, wife of Edward H Osgood, “Being a part of the premises conveyed to Andrew Dodge by Hannah Edwards et. al, April 22, 1825,” Salem Deeds 2477/126
  • Mary A. Leach, widow, and Harriett Adeline Wilkins to Mary Osgood, wife of Edward H Osgood, 12 acres with all the buildings thereon” Granters are the heirs of Susan Wilkins. Salem Deeds 2635/537
  • April 21, 1923: Annie Bishop to Wilkins, premises or right of way.
  • July 21, 1975: Edward H. Osgood, to Robert and Nancy Spofford, Salem Deeds 6167/790
  • March 1981: Robert Spofford Jr. and Nancy Spofford to Robert Spofford Jr., Quitclaim Deed 6806/13;
  • March, 1983: Robert N. and Nancy W. Spofford to David F. Hall Jr., Salem Deeds, 7082 / 555.
  • 02/01/1996: Salem Deeds 13430/ 230 , David and Mary Hall to James M. White: “Parcel with the buildings situated.

Sources and further reading:

Visually similar houses in this area

The John Curtis House at 211 Larch Row in Wenham
On the opposite side of Walnut St., the John Curtis House at 211 Larch Row has an approximate construction date of 1850, a decade after Andrew Dodge is thought to have expanded and renovated the house at 201 Larch Row. Both houses have paired chimneys and recessed main entrances flanked by rectangular sidelights and transoms. On the Curtis house, the entablature below the roofline, pediment and pilasters at the entrance, and wide corner boards with architraves display the influence of Asher Benjamin, whose books, The American Builder’s Companion, and the Country Builders Assistant spanned the Federal and Greek Revival Periods.
  • WNH.133 — Batchelder, Edmund and Elizabeth Kimball House, 18 Cedar St, Wenham (c 1790)
  • WNH.147 — Batchelder, Edmund Kimball and Charlotte Day House, 44 Cherry St, Wenham (c 1770-1790)
  • BEV.467 — Woodberry, Benjamin House, 47 Conant St, Beverly (c 1800)
  • BEV.633 — Dodge House, 346 Dodge St, Beverly (c 1780)
  • ESS.40 — Crafts House, Story St, Essex (1791)
  • ESS.7 — Cogswell, William House, 17 Western Ave, Essex (1771)
  • ESS.17 — Burnham, Francis House, 135 Western Ave, Essex (1790)
  • MAN.30 — Whipple, Dr. Joseph House, 8 Washington St, Manchester (b 1774)
  • TPF.91 — Cummings, Capt. Joseph and Capt. Thomas House, 83 Asbury St, Topsfield (1778)
  • TPF.55 — Towne, Jacob House 32 High St, Topsfield (1815)
  • IPS.2 — Newmarch, Martha – Spiller, Hannah House, 8 Agawam Ave, Ipswich (c 1800)
  • IPS.221 — Nourse, Daniel House, 243 High St, Ipswich (1809)
  • IPS.267 — Foster, Thomas House, 376 Linebrook Rd, Ipswich (c 1800)
  • IPS.107 — Kimball, Rev. David T. House 6 Meeting House Green, Ipswich (1808)

The barn at 201 Larch Row, c 1800

3 bay English style barn at 201 Larch Row in Wenham
The oldest part of the barn at 201 Larch Row is in the middle of this photo, and was extended on the left. The attached structure on the right has conventional framing as well as a two-hole outhouse, and probably dates to the late 19th Century.
Purlin roof in 3 bay English style barn at 201 Larch Row in Wenham
Left addition, inside the barn at 201 Larch Row, which may date to the construction of the oldest part of the house, c 1890. The “principle rafter and common purlin” roofing system in this barn is unique to the English colonies in Eastern New England. In the early 19th Century, a larger barn construction style known as the “New England Barn” began to replace the three bay English Barn in popularity. Larger and longer, the New England Barn typically has doors on the gable ends, is built with sawn rather than hewn timbers, and has modern roof framing.
Cedar shingles on 3 bay English style barn at 201 Larch Row in Wenham
Rear of the barn at 201 Larch Row

The Newburyport Cut-off

Gordon Harris2 Comments
Newburyport cutoff Rt. 1

May 19, 1934 fire in Newburyport MA
May 19, 1934: A large fire destroyed buildings along Merrimack St.
1851 map courtesy of Mary Baker

On May 19, 1934, an arsonist caused the second largest fire in Newburyport history, destroying buildings along several blocks of Merrimack St., including a few adjoining houses from Winter to Titcomb Street.

Something even more devastating was already happening. Initiated in 1930, the Route One bypass destroyed dozens of private homes to create a bypass of High and State Streets. Only a handful of homes were moved to new locations. Bulldozers razed the remaining houses on the east side of Winter St. and the west side of Summer St., creating a gigantic trench known as the Rt. 1. Cut-off. The neighborhood had managed to mostly escape the wraths of the 1934 fire and the larger conflagration of 1811, but with the automotive age well under way, the ancient neighborhood was demolished to make way for Boston drivers bypassing Newburyport for vacations in New Hampshire.

Steam locomotive entering Newburyport, early 20th Century
Winter Street had already been cut off from Spring St. when the railway came to Newburyport in the 1840s. Only 6 houses predating the 1934 construction of the Rt. 1 bypass remain standing on Winter St,

As part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), architects and photographers throughout the country were put to work recording the nation’s heritage. Arthur C. Haskell photographed several of the doomed houses in the Newburyport Cut-off before they were demolished. Visit the Library of Congress site to view 220 Newburyport images and architectural drawings from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).

1890 Birdseye map of Newburyport, MA
Section of the 1894 Birdseye map of Newburyport, MA, showing houses on Winter, Summer and Birch Streets that were demolished to make way for Rt. 1. The railroad had already carved a slice out of the west side of Winter Street when it came to Newburyport in the 1840s.
Rt. 1 Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Newburyport, MA 1934
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. Dec. 1934. After- view of Summer St. looking south from between Washington and Birch Streets. – Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Newburyport, Essex County, MA
Summer St. looking south from between Washington and Birch Streets. (Stockman House) Demolished for Highway Cut-off Demolition Area
Demolished. – Summer St. looking south from between Washington and Birch Streets. (Stockman House) Demolished for Highway Cut-off Demolition Area. Image from Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer April, 1934.
Newburyport Highway Cut-off Demolition Area. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer, April, 1934
Demolished. –View westerly from Summer St. between Washington and Birch Sts. – Highway Cut-off Demolition Area. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer, April, 1934
Looking south along Summer St. from corner of Washington St - Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Historic American Buildings Survey
Demolished. –View looking south along Summer St. from corner of Washington St – Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer April, 1934.
Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. April, 1934
Demolished. –Corner Birch and Summer Sts. looking Northwest. – Highway Cut-off Demolition Area, Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. April, 1934
Looking south along Summer St. from Merrimack St. - Highway Cut-off Demolition Area. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. April, 1934
Demolished.– Looking south along Summer St. from Merrimack St. – Highway Cut-off Demolition Area. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. April, 1934
Stockman House, 5 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey
Demolished. –Stockman House, 5 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Stockman House, 5 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Demolished. –View from Southeast, Stockman House, 5 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Regan House, 7 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey of Newburyport
Demolished. –View from Northeast. – Regan House, 7 Birch Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. June, 1934.
Hennessey House, 2 Summer Street, Newburyport.
Demolished. –Hennessey House, 2 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer June, 1934
Stonecutting Shop, 2 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey,
Demolished. –Stonecutting Shop, 2 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Marden House, 32 Summer Street, Newburyport.
Demolished. –Marden House, 32 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Marden House, 32 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey
Demolished. –View from Northeast. – Marden House, 32 Summer Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Thurlow House, 43 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey,
Demolished. –Thurlow House, 43 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Charles Stockman House, 31-33 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey,
Demolished. –Charles Stockman House, 31-33 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Charles Stockman House, 31-33 Winter Street, Newburyport, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey,
Demolished. –Detail, rear, from southeast. – Charles Stockman House, 31-33 Winter Street, Newburyport, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Thurlow House, 43 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey,
Demolished. –Rear view from Northwest. – Thurlow House, 43 Winter Street, Newburyport. Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer. 1934
Newburyport turnpike, 1940
Since the Rt. 1 cut-off was completed, drivers can speed through the sliced-apart Newburyport neighborhood without knowing it ever existed. Photo circa 1940
newburyport_downtown_postcard

Eaton house, N. Reading

Gordon HarrisLeave a comment
House on Park St. in North Reading MA

For several years, I did carpentery on an old house in North Reading. The house is not on any historic registers, not even the town site, but the post and beam construction in the front  section, joined together with tree nails (aka “trunnels”) suggests that it may date back to the 18th Century.

At some point, a wing was added on to the rear, perhaps another old building that was moved to the site and tacked on, judging from the irregular floors. All sections of the house have post and beam construction and low ceilings, suggesting an early construction date. Generations of owners have added their own touches to this cozy and unique home, including a full-width shed dormer in the front, smaller gable dormers in the rear section, and a side porch..

Rear of the house after renovations
Rear of the house after renovations

Captain Thomas Eaton homestead

This building was part of the historic Eaton homestead which dates to 1768.  The front right downstairs room is much older than the rest of the house and was probably originally an outbuilding on the farm of Captain Thomas Eaton I and II.

Captain Thomas Eaton Jr. died at the age of eighty-six, on December 4, 1829. His wife and widow Joanna, died three months later, on March 8, 1830, at the age of eighty- three. Their son George Washington Eaton, then forty-eight yrs. old, came into possession of the farm, consisting of the family dwelling at the corner of Washington and Park Streets, a barn, shoe shop, three adjoining sheds, house lot, barn lot, and forty acres of meadow, pasture, and wood lot.

The earliest record of this house is in April of 1861 when it was transferred from Warren Eaton to Sarah Randolph. The house by that time had acquired its current dimensions but the lot was only 1/4 acre. The house to the left was Sylvester Eaton’s shoe shop in the 1889 North Reading map. The surrounding property remained in the possession of Warren Eaton in the 1875 North Reading map and the 1889 map. William Reed bought the house in 1872 and sold it in 1876.

1856-north-reading-map-eaton
Closeup of the Eaton homestead in the 1856 North Reading map. It appears to show the occupant or owner as Mrs. S. Nichols. Deed records show that in April of 1861 it was transferred from Warren Eaton to Sarah Randolph.
105-park-st-n-reading-map
The house is circled in the 1889 North Reading map showing the Easton property with this unnamed building between the shoe shop and the home of Dan Eaton.
The intersection of the roof line and dormer walls in the ell create the unusual ceiling shapes in the photo. The front door of the room leads to the original part of the house and the rear door exits to the back stairway.

The WikiTree site provides the following genealogy:

Sources:

The Nehemiah Perkins house (18th Century, altered 1840)

Gordon Harris1 Comment
Nehemiah Perkins house, Wenham

The house at 40 Cherry Street in Wenham has what appears to be an 18th Century frame. The house was modified during the 19th Century in the popular “carpenter gothic” style. Physical examination of the frame indicates a story and a half cottage constructed before the 1777 deed, which mentions a house and barn on the land. Hand-hewn chamfered summer beams and posts throughout the house and basement appear to predate the Georgian era (1725-1780), when framing was boxed and no longer dressed.

The owner of the house provided the following deed history:

  • 1777: Asma Kimball sold 45 acres to Thomas Webber. The deed references a house and barn on the land.
  • 1809: Thomas Webber dies and Betsey (Webber) Merrill inherits as part of his estate.
  • 1817: The deed for Daniel Merrill and Besty (Webber) Merrill mentions a house and barn on the western end of land
  • 1820’s: Betsey Webber Merrill, now living in Gloucester breaks up the estate and sells 45 acres (she lived in Gloucester not Wenham)
  • 1835: Francis Merrill sells this lot to John Perley.
  • 1837: John Perley sells to Nehemiah Perkins for $85.
  • 1837: The next day he sold it to his son Nehemiah Perkins Jr. for $1.00.
  • 1865: Property sells for $1,000, including buildings on the site.

The Perkins family in Wenham

Nehemiah Perkins Jr, son of Nehemiah and grandson of John Perkins was born in 1800 and was age 37, with 5 children when bought the land, owning it until his death in 1861. It appears that he restored the house with its present “carpenter Gothic” appearance.

The Perkins family in Wenham dates back to 1690 when Sergent John Perkins of Ipswich and others bought 300 acres on the border of Wenham and the Hamlet near the Great Swamp, a section of Ipswich that is now Hamilton, which had previously been common land. At the beginning of the 18th Century, the town divided the common land among groups of 8 residents, called companies.

Colonial Post and Beam frame

Rather than facing the street like the other older houses on Cherry Street, the front of this house faces due south, which was more common in the early Colonial period. Hewn summer beams are exposed in the entryway, and the inside corners of the house frame have painted hewn posts with beveled edges. The summer beams, corner posts and beams in the basement show evidence of powder post beatles, but there is no indication that the corner posts or summer beams were ever boxed. A filled-in mortise in the summer beam suggests the original location of the stairway post. Mortises in the left beam have been filled with wood but indicate the location of the original floor joists.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, wooden structures in New England were still being constructed of hand-hewn timber frames. Timber framing persisted through the Federal and Greek Revival Periods, and began to be replaced by light balloon framing around 1840 at the beginning of the Victorian era, which includes Gothic Revival architecture. Most of the sheathing and roof framing in this house are hidden behind finished walls and ceilings, but evidence of a post and beam, story and a half cottage having pit-sawn horizontal exterior wall sheathing at least 20″ wide is visible in the opening to the attic over the right addition. Mills began using circular, rather than straight, saw blades starting around 1830; by 1900 circular saws had replaced nearly all the sash sawmills.

Masonry

In the 20th Century, an opening was made in the stone foundation of the main house to extend the basement underneath the attached barn when it was remodeled to become a wing of the house. Problematic is the lack of evidence of an earlier central fireplace. The cellar walls are not stacked field stone, but mortared and relatively smooth, suggesting the house may not be on its original foundation. Or the earlier chimney stack may have disappeared when the house was reconstructed and the concrete basement floor was poured.

The masonry arches and fireplace date to after 1780-90, but no later than the 1840 renovation. The small fireplace in the left room and the cooking fireplace in the right room are both of Rumford design, and are supported by brick trimmer arches. Wood heat and beehive ovens were used until the beginning of the industrial revolution around 1840, when coal began to replace wood as fuel for heating and cooking. Count Rumford detailed his improvements for fireplaces in 1796 and in 1798, and the “Rumford fireplace” became the standard by the beginning of the 19th Century. The cast iron wood burning stove was marketed by Stewart Oberlin in 1834, and sales soon boomed throughout the United States.

Present appearance: “Carpenter Gothic”

The present appearance of this house dates to sometime after 1837 when the early story and a half cottage was reconstructed. “Carpenter Gothic” homes were built during the early Industrial Revolution from 1840 – 1860. The Gothic gables on this house are less steep than usual, indicating a modification of the existing roof framing, which is not accessible for examination.

In America, the Gothic Revival style was popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing in his books, Cottage Residences in 1842 and The Architecture of Country Houses in 1850, which included architectural plans and elevation drawings. The form generally includes steep “wall dormers.“

Conclusions

The house represents stages of construction and renovation over a period dating from the Colonial era to the mid-19th Century, plus modern modfications. Structural and stylistic evidence indicate that the frame of this house was probably constructed no later than the first quarter of the 18th Century. Orientation of the house toward the south provides additional evidence. Masonry in the two fireplaces dates to between 1790 and 1840, indicating the possibility of two major alterations. The present house was modified after it was purchased in 1837 with a “carpenter Gothic” roof. Further deed research and a dendrochronology test of the summer beams and other framing may help determine the approximate date of original construction.

House plans by Andrew Jackson Downing:

Other Sources:

Architectural books and guides

Joseph Noyes house, 45 Elm St., Newbury MA (c 1695) (Frank and Carrie Knight Ambrose house)

Gordon HarrisLeave a comment

The house is believed to have been constructed by a member of the Noyes family, descendants of Nicholas and James Noyes who emigrated from Choulderton in Wiltshire England in the year 1634 and settled at Newbury.

John Dummer deed to Daniel Noyes, “A certain parcel of land, Part of the Land Grant of my late honored father Richard Dummer.” May 20, 1715. (Book 30, Page 130). There were two Daniel Noyes in Newbury at that time:

  • Daniel, s. John, born Oct. 23, 1673, died Mar. 15, 1715-16, age 42 years
  • Capt. Daniel, s. Thomas, born Aug. 30, 1674, died at Madeira, Oct. 5, 1728, age 54 years.

Another possibility is the 1716 deed of Thomas Noyes to his son Joseph for his “love and affection” 17 acres with appurtenances. Joseph Noyes was born August 5, 1688, Newbury, the son of Thomas and Elisabeth Noyes.

On March 26, 1715, in Newbury, Joseph married Hannah Wadleigh. [2] Hannah was born circa 1697, in Deerfield, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, the daughter of Jonathan Wadleigh (1657-1748) and Hannah (Weare) Wadleigh

The owner of this house in 1727 is mentioned below as Joseph Noyes. (Speculation: this could be Joseph, son of Daniel and Judith, born on Aug. 6, 1705.)

45 Elm Street, Newbury MA (Byfield)
45 Elm Street at the turn of the 21st Century.

“In 1727 a highway 2 rods wide was laid out from the country road near to Lieutenant Governor Dummer’s house to the parsonage land in Byfield Parish through the land of John Dummer Esq., Mr. Richard Dummer and Mr. Joseph Noyes. In 1900 this house was the Ambrose residence. “(*Old Paths and Legends of New England: Saunterings Over Historic Roads” by Katharine Mixer Abbott).

The 1872 map of Newbury and Byfield shows this house owned by G. W. Knight.

In the Salem Deeds site, we find that John Noyes transferred property in Newbury to James Knight in 1855, but further research is needed to know if it is this house. (Salem deeds book=522; page 181)

A story has been passed down that the first owner of this house was a well-to-do businessman and ship owner who sent the lumber to England to be milled to his specifications. When the materials were returned, the house was allegedly assembled upside-down, i.e., the first floor was created with second floor materials and the second floor with first floor materials. The ceiling of the first floor is incredibly low, and persons over 6′ in height have to lean over when standing.

“In 1757 Robin Mingo, a free man of color and inhabitant of Rowley sickened and died at the house of Joseph Noyes in Newbury’s Byfield Parish. The town of Rowley paid Noyes for ten weeks board and nursing.

While originally a boys’ school, Dummer School admitted women briefly during the 1873-74 session. Carrie G. Knight Ambrose, who lived in this house, graduated from Dummer Academy in June, 1876, winner of the Moody Kent Prize for general excellence. Born in 1859, the daughter of George W. Knight and Caroline Lunt, she was one of six girls to first enroll at the Academy in 1872 under the direction of Ebenezer and Sarah Parsons. For a period of ten years, 1872 to 1882, neighborhood girls were accepted as day students. After graduating from the Academy, Carrie married classmate Frank M. Ambrose. They lived for many years in this 1695 house, which served for several years as the site of the South Byfield Post Office with Mrs. Carrie K. Ambrose as Postmistress.

Knight-Ambrose house plaque

Sources: